LIBRA RY OF CONG RESS. 

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i UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

V . i BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 



-i 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 



Department of the Interior^ 
Bureau of Education, 

Washington, October 20, 1880. 
The accompanying papers respecting the Higher Commercial Institute of Antwerp, 
Belgium, the Federal Polytechnic School at Zurich, Switzerland, the Higher Com- 
mercial and Silk Weaving School, at Lyons, France, and the Higher Commercial 
School of Marseilles, France, exhibit the ways in which Europeans deal with the de- 
mand for a practical business education. 

JOHN EATON, 

Commissioner. 



WASHIiTGTO]^: 

€^0"VEBNMENT PRINTING- OFFICE. 
1880. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 



I. HIGHER COMMERCIAL INSTITUTE, ANTWERP, BELGIUM. 

The lastitut sup^rieur de commerce was eatablislied by royal decree of October 29, 
1852, at the exj)ense of the Belgian government and of the city of Antwerp. 

The course of study lasts two years. The age of the pupils ranges from 18 to 20. 
Each student pays 25 francs matriculation fee. The tuition fees are 200 francs for the 
first and 250 francs for the second year. A special fee of 100 francs is charged for a 
course in the commercial office. 

The examination for admission is held annually before a commission appointed by 
the government and presided over by the director of the institution. The subjects of 
examination are : A French composition and a translation from French into German and 
English ; physical geography ; commercial arithmetic ; elements of algebra and geom- 
etry ; book-keeping ; rudiments of natural philosophy and chemistry ; rudiments of 
universal history. A preparatory course of instruction is given by the professors of 
the institution. It lasts from Easter until August 15. The fee for this preparatory 
course is 100 francs. In this course special attention is paid to foreign students. 
Pupils who have completed their collegiate education are admitted without exam- 
ination. The examination at the end of the first year for admission to the course of 
the second year takes place at the close of the annual session. The director, the 
professors, and the governmeiit inspector are the examiners. At the end of the second 
year a special examining board appointed by the government confers the degree of 
licentiate in commercial sciences upon such students as pass the requisite examination. 
Belgian students who have displayed special proficiency may obtain government 
aid which will enable them to travel abroad for several years. A sum of 40,000 francs 
is annually appropriated for this purpose in the budget of the minister of foreign 
affairs. All the examinations are free of expense to the students. 

The lectures commence in the second week of October. Being delivered in French> 
foreign pupils must have previously acquired some knowledge of that language. The 
transactions in the commercial office are carried on in the languages generally used 
in commerce. 

A library composed of commercial works and an extensive museum of mercantile 
products are connected with the institution. 

The institution is placed under the control of a committee of seven members, the 
burgomaster of the city of Antwerp being ex officio president. The other six mem- 
bers are appointed three by the government and three by the municipal council of 
Antwerp. 

PROGRAMME OF THE COURSE. 

PREPARATORY COURSE, 

French, German, English, history, geography, book-keeping, arithmetic, algebra, 
geometry, natural history, chemistry. 

The foregoing branches are the subjects of examination for admission to the first 
year class. 

FIRST TEAR. 

I. Mercantile office (three hours every day) : Transactions of a general business 
house ; practical demonstration and application of commercial arithmetic ; invoices J 

3 



4 INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 

account sales; account of charges; accounts current; commercial calculations and 
valuations ; exchange operations ; public funds ; book-keeping ; commercial contracts ► 
arbitration of exchanges ; bills of lading ; insurance ; weights and measures. Every 
operation is entered in books kept by single and double entry ; these books are bal- 
anced, stock is taken, and the affairs of the house liquidated at the end of the year. 
Correspondence is carried on in French, German, English, and Dutch. 

II. Description of the following commercial articles (three hours a week) : Sulphur, 
phosphorus, iodine, carbon, ammonia, arsenic, metals, potash, soda, lime, magnesia, 
aluminium, barium, manganese, iron, steel, cast iron, oxide, sulphate and cyanide of 
iron, chromium and chromates, cobalt, smalt, zinc and its compounds, tin, lead and 
its compounds, bismuth, antimony, copper and its compounds, mercury, gold, silver, 
platinum, aromatic roots, timber, dye woods, barks and cinnamon, laurel, senna, sumac, 
tea, tobacco, flowers and fruits of all kinds, hemp, clover, wheat, rye, barley, oats,, 
buckwheat, rice, flour, coffee, cotton, flax, vegetables, raw and refined sugars. 

III. Political economy and statistics (two hours Si week) : Object of political economy; 
nature and utility of this science ; causes which have impeded its progress ; analysis. 
of the elements of production ; labor, natural agents ; capital, of what it consists and 
what part it is acting in production ; classification of capital ; how capital is created 
and increased ; importance of increase ; inquiry into the causes of the greater and smaller 
productiveness of the producing powers in different countries ; property ; division of 
labor: ideas of Adam Smith on this subject; values: their definition; the laws which 
regulate them ; supply and demand ; the expenses of production ; prices ; money ; the 
value of money ; variation in the value of precious metals and the consequences result- 
ing from it to economy and society in general ; credit : general notions of credit ; its 
importance in production ; institutions of credit, or banks ; various descriptions of 
banks ; banks of deposit, commercial banks, banks of circulation ; circulation of irre- 
deemable paper or paper money ; credit on land ; credit as a means of rendering the 
use of money less frequent ; influence of credit on prices : commercial crises ; ea uilib. 
rium between production and consumption ; international trade: necessity and ad van 
tages thereof; free trade between the different nations ; the system of protection ; in- 
fluence of money on international exchanges ; the forms of production ; the principle 
of association ; commercial companies; production on a large and on a small scale ; 
distribution of wealth ; wages : in what manner wages are regulated ; population : the 
opinions of Malthus on this subject ; how the condition of those who receive wages 
may be improved ; profits : analysis of the elements which constitute them ; in what 
manner they are regulated ; the rate of interest ; rent of land ; theory of Ricardo ; in 
what manner governments procure the necessary resources to provide for the public 
service ; taxes : their influence on the development of wealth ; necessity of taxes ; pro- 
gressive tax and proportional tax; income tax; imposition of taxes; public credit; 
state loans ; annuities ; redemption ; whether loans are preferable to taxes to meet ex- 
traordinary exigencies; statistics: their object, utility, character, division, &c. 

IV. Commercial and industrial geography (three hours a week) : Topographical and 
statistical information on the different countries of the world. This information, which 
is derived from the latest consular reports and the most recent communications, refers 
to the following points : Topographical situation ; constitution of the soil ; mineral, 
vegetable, and animal kingdoms ; political and social condition of countries ; financial 
condition; national wealth ; prosperity and decline : their causes; principal productions 
of each country ; commodities which can be procured from various countries with 
advantage ; exports of various countries ; principal products for which there is demand 
in different countries ; countries particularly supplied by Belgium ; statistics of im- 
ports ; the character of the economical and tariff legislation of each country ; hin- 
drances and facilities in the way of trade ; tastes and habits of the population relative 
to trade ; origin and causes of commercial relations between the various countries. 

V. Law (one hour a week) : Preparatory instruction for the study of commercial 
law ; general remarks on the matter contained in the first two books of the civil code ; 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 5 

examination of the general principles of obligation ; contracts ; sales ; partnerships ; 
loans ; securities, &c. 

VI. Spanish (three hours a week) : Pronunciation, reading, grammar, dictation^ 
translations, correspondence. 

VII. Italian (three hours a week) : Pronunciation, reading, grammar, dictation, 
translations, correspondence. 

VIII. German (three hours a week) : Reading, correspondence, grammar, transla- 
tions. 

IX. English (three hours a week) : Reading, grammar, correspondence. 

X. Dutch (two hours a week) : Pronunciation, grammar, exercises, composition, 
correspondence, conversation. 

SECOND YEAR. 

I. Mercantile office (three hours a week): Conditions of sales and purchases,* gen- 
eral usages in the commercial markets of the different parts of the world ; commission 
business ; the fitting out of vessels ; insurance ; banking ; imports and exports ; prac- 
tice in book-keeping ; making out bills ; exchange ; reports relating to commerce ; 
finances and industry in various countries ; correspondence in French, Dutch, English, 
German, Spanish, and Italian. The mercantile office keeps commercial newspapers 
from London, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Havre, New York, Havana, Rio de 
Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, Valparaiso, Sydney, East India, and China. All these papers 
are at the disposal of the students. 

II. Description of mercantile articles and products (two hours a week) : The course 
includes the study of gum, India rubber, balsam, turpentine, tar, oils, oilcakes fer- 
mented products, salts, bones, glue, rawhides, skins, hair, feathers, wool, grease tal- 
low, honey, guano, meat, fish, &c., cast and wrought iron, wire, needles, nails cut- 
lery, sheet iron, tin plates, wire gauze, metal utensils and apparatus, beaten gold and 
silver, armory, printing types, artificial cement, bricks, tiles, pipes, crockery, porce- 
lain, glass, bottles, soap, wax, varnish, ink, oil cloth, colors and paints, spun flax 
spinning mills, cloths, flannels, blankets, merinos, carpets, yarn, velvets, silks, hosiery 
ribbons, lace, gloves, hats, leather, morocco, paper, pasteboard, cigars, tobacco tools. 

HI. General history of commerce and industry (two hours a week) : History of commerce 
and industry from the earliest times to the fall of the Roman empire ,• first rise of 
industry and commerce; the first arts and their inventors; industry and trade in 
Phoenicia, Egypt, Palestine, and India; trade of Carthage; industry and trade of the 
Greeks and Romans; slavery in ancient times; its organization and influence on the 
development of trade and industry ; condition of industry and trade and social condi- 
tion of the people at the period of the Roman empire ; reorganization of industry 
after the invasion of the barbarians ; systems of corporation ; hindrances which the 
feudal system opposed to the development of industry and commerce ; to what causes 
the Italian republics and the towns of the Hanseatic league owed their commercial 
prosperity; cursory view of trade and industry in Flanders; to what particular causes 
the prosperity of Belgium from the earliest period of the middle ages is to be ascribed • 
condition of industry and commerce of the world at the period of the discovery of 
America ; from the discovery of America up to the invention of the steam engine ; in- 
fluence of the discovery of the new world on trade and industry; new colonies and 
colonial systems ; effects of these systems ; commercial prosperity of Holland and its 
causes ; decline of the industry and trade of Belgium after the treaty of Miinster * 
manufacturing system of Colbert and its influence on the development of French in- 
dustry ; the edict of Nantes and the pernicious effects of religious persecution on in- 
dustry and trade ; Cromwell's navigation act ; the creation of the banks of England 
and Scotland; Law's system and the evils to which it gave rise ; origin of economical 
science ; history of the first progress of political economy and the authors who beo-an 
to pursue it ; sketch of the condition of trade and industry at the period of the inven- 
tion of the steam engine; inventions of Watt, Arkwright, Hargreaves, Crompton &c. 
and their influence on production ; character of the vast industry to which these inven- 



b INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUEOPE. 

tions gave rise ; the impetus they gave to tlie industry and commerce of England ; the 
Frenoli revolution and its influence on the trade and industry of the world ; the indus- 
trial and commercial progress realized by the principal nations from the peace of 1815 
to the present time ; ways of communication : railroads ; steamboats ; telegraphs ; eco- 
nomical reforms of England and their influence ; general condition of commerce and 
industry at the present time; the monetary question; emigration: its causes and in- 
fluence; recapitulation; progress made by society ; in what manner civilization, which 
was at first local, became afterwards universal. 

IV. Commercial and maritime legislation compared. Principles of international law (two 
hours a week) : Complete study of commercial law and the modifications introduced 
up to the present time ; associations and companies ; bills of exchange ; failures and 
bankruptcies ; maritime law ; theory of insurances, &c. ; laws concerning consulates, 
pilotage, and maritime police, and passes ; disciplinary and penal code for the mer- 
cantile navy and sea fishery ; laws on licenses, letters patent, weights and measures . 
arbitration ; general remarks on commercial and maritime legislation of the principal 
countries ; principles of international law in their relation to commerce ; definition 
and object of international law ; origin, character, guarantees, sanction, and sources of 
this law; European equilibrium; progress of this law ; public treaties ; rights of neu- 
tral parties in time of war ; importance of the flag, &c. 

V. Customs legislatio7i (one hour a week) : Importance of this subject ; relation be- 
tween political economy and the legislation of customs and tariffs ; what is understood 
by protection ; comparison of free trade and protective systems ; different kinds of 
duties ; duties on imports ; duties on exports ; duties on transits ; duties on naviga- 
tion; different modes of applying and collecting duties; duties ad valorem; duties 
on weight; bonded warehouses, docks, free ports, &.c. ; the administration of customs; 
relations between the customs and the navy ; smuggling ; the colonial system of Eu- 
rope, its effects upon political economy ; modern tendency to substitute freedom for 
restrictions ; colonial system of Holland ; modifications which the colonial system 
underwent in England in 1833 and 1834 ; emancipation of the slaves ; general survey 
of the Belgian tariff; the German Zollverein; tariffs of France, the United States of 
America, and other countries. 

VI. SJiip huilding and fitting out (one hour a week) : Nomenclature and description of 
the different parts of the hull, spars, and rigging of a merchant ship ; calculations of the 
tonnage according to the laws of different countries ; maintenance and repair of wooden 
and iron vessels ; materials used in ship building ; visits to the ship yards at Antwerp ; 
modes of loading and unloading ; regulations relative to the transport of emigrants. 

VII. Commercial and industrial geography (three hours a week) : Review of the first 
year's course. 

VIII. Political economy and statistics (two hours a week) : Review of the last year's 
course. 

IX. German (three hours a week) : Conversation, commercial correspondence, in- 
voices, accounts, bills of exchange, bills of lading, manifests, &c. 

X. English (three hours a week) : Conversation, English commercial law, bills of 
exchange, and other commercial writings. 

XI. Italian (three hours a week) : Exercises, translations, conversation ; review of 
the first year's course. 

XII. Spanish (three hours a week) : Mercantile letters, conversation, translatioDS. 

XIII. Dutch : Review of the first year's course, correspondence, reading of classical 
authors, conversation. 

II. HIGHER COMMERCIAL AND SILK-WEAVING SCHOOL, LYONS, FRANCE. 

The lEcole sup^rieure de commerce et de tissage, founded by a stock company, with 
a capital of 1,200,000 francs, is under the special patronage of the chamber of com- 
merce of Lyons. 

The school admits boarders and day scholars. There are two sections, the com- 
mercial and the weaving section. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 7 

In the commercial section, tlie subjects taught are book-keeping, trade and banking 
operations, penmanship, commercial geography, study of various raw materials, 
modern languages, commercial law, political economy, the moral duties of the business 
man, drawing, and sketching. The course of the commercial section lasts two years. 
Pui^ils who pass a satisfactory examination at the end of the second year receive a 
diploma. 

In the weaving section the course of studies lasts one year. The pupils attend a 
course of lectures on the theory of cloth weaving, and spend several hours every day 
in working at the diiferent looms. The workshops of the different schools contain four- 
teen looms of various description, including steam power looms. After a satisfactory 
examination, the pupils receive a diploma of capacity. 

III. FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL, ZURICH. 

The Eidgenossische Polytechnicum had 564 regular students and 223 hearers in 
1878-79, against 640 regular students and 263 hearers in 1877-78. There was, there- 
fore, a decrease of 76 in the number of regular students and of 40 in the number of 
hearers. Of the 564 regular students, 300 were Swiss and 264 foreigners ; in 1877-'78, 
there were 331 Swiss and 309 foreigners. Of the 264 foreigners in 1878-'79, 94 were 
from Austria-Hungary, 44 from Germany, 34 from Italy, 2 from America, 18 from 
Roumania and Servia, 14 from Russia, 10 from Sweden and Norway, 7 from Great 
Britain, 5 from Denmark, 4 from Holland, 4 from France, 2 from Turkey, 2 from 
Greece, and 1 from Egypt. 

Of 51 candidates, 47 successfully passed the examination for a diploma. Since the 
establishment of the school 979 diplomas have been conferred, viz : 79 to architects, 
309 to civil engineers, 241 to mechanical engineers, 139 to chemists, 115 to students of 
forestry and agriculture, and 96 to special teachers who had completed their courses, 
in the normal section. 

The library of the school has been increased by 1,077 volumes; the total number of 
volumes is now 21,561. The school takes 120 periodical publications. 

IV. THE HIGHER COMMERCIAL SCHOOL OF MARSEILLES, FRANCE. 

The ]Ecole sup^rieure de commerce of Marseilles, which is under the patronage of 
the Chamber of Commerce, provides a good scientific and commercial education for 
young men who are to become clerks, book-keepers, merchants, managers of commer- 
cial and industrial establishments, &c., and enables them not only to direct the inland 
trade of France, but also to enlarge the mercantile relations of France with foreign 
countries. 

No pupil is admitted unless he has completed his fourteenth year. 

The total duration of studies is three years. The first year's studies are purposely 
adapted to prepare native and foreign pupils to the technical courses of the second 
and third year. They include mathematics and natural sciences, as well as the study 
of French and English. It is an excellent preliminary course, suited to a large num- 
ber of French pupils and indispensable to almost all foreign pupils. 

The classes for modern languages correspond in the second year to the hours of free 
study in the first, so that the pupils of the latter may, with the consent of their parents 
or guardians, learn these languages from the very beginning of their admission. 

In the second and third years the pupils are taught trade and commerce in general. 
The courses of these two years are to initiate them into the practice of business and 
give them a sufficieat knowledge of the laws which govern public wealth. They are 
also taught to speak and write with propriety and ease the language used in business, 
either French or any other tongue. 

The course of study in the first year being essentially preliminary, pupils are ad- 
mitted without any previous examination. Nevertheless they must write legibly and 
possess a knowledge of orthography and composition, arithmetic, simple and com- 
pound rules, tables of weights and measures, proportion, and fractions. They must 



8 INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 

furtlier be able to answer questions on the principal divisions of the earth and on the 
leading events in the history of their country. 

During the first year great care is taken in the teaching of French to foreign pupils. 

The courses of the second and third years continue the scientific and commercial in- 
struction. Students who wish to pass from the first course to the second have to un- 
dergo a thorough examination on all branches taught during the first year. If they 
fail in the examination, they have to resume their studies in the preliminary class. 

Graduates of universities may dispense with the examination ; they are, however, 
required to write a good hand and to possess a rudimentary knowledge of French and 
English. Any other young man, to be admitted directly, has to pass an examination 
on the scientific part of the programme. , 

Are admitted to the course of the third year : 

1. Pupils of the second year who pass the examination at the end of that year ; 

2. Students who, without having followed the courses of the first and second years, 
prove in an examination that they possess a complete knowledge of the branches form- 
ing the courses of the preceding years. 

PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIOJST. 

FIRST YEAR. 

Writing (4 hours) : Neat, clear, and legible hand. Letter writing. 

French (5 hours) : Grammar, spelling, and composition. 

Arithmetic (6 hours): Leading rules; decimals; fractions; square root; proportion 
and progression; simple and compound interest; discount; French and foreign weights 
and measures ; logarithms ; mental arithmetic. 

Mathematics and natural sciences (3 hours): First steps in algebra; elementary geom- 
etry; mensuration; solid measures; first steps in mechanics; elementary zoology, 
botany, and geology. 

Chemistry and physics (3 hours). 

Cosmography and geography (3 hours). 

Book-keeping (1 hour). 

English (5 hours). 

This makes 30 hours of lessons a week. 

TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 
SECOND AND THIRD YEARS. 

French (3 hours) : Grammatical difficulties and peculiarities of the language ; com- 
mercial correspondence; reports; drawing up of commercial documents. 

Commercial office (second year, 9 hours; third year, 12 hours) : Arithmetic ; purchases 
and sales in varies countries: account current ; account sales; book-keeping; joint 
accounts ; consignments ; coins and paper money ; weights and measures ; commer- 
cial usages and conditions of foreign markets ; arbitration of exchanges ; public funds ; 
shares and bonds ; inventory ; dissolution of partnership. 

The pupils of the third year are divided into several offices and firms. These firms 
keep up a regular correspondence with one another in the language of the country to 
which the office is supposed to belong. They solicit or open credit, and they pur- 
chase and sell to one another all kinds of goods. 

Special study of merchandise (3 hours) : Agricultural and colonial products ; raw ma- 
terials ; textiles ; dyes and drugs; fabrics; ores and minerals ; assaying and analysis 
of goods ; study of the most important chemical principles of agriculture and the 
leading manufactures. 

In this course the pupils are taught how to distinguish the staple articles of every 
country. The school possesses a collection of samples and a laboratory for chemical 
analysis. 

The pupils, under the direction of the professor, visit as often as necessary manu- 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. 9 

factories, wareliouses, building yards, &c., where tliey acquire llie practical knowl- 
edge of things taught in school. 

Commercial geograiiliy (3 hours) : Commercialgeography of the globe; map drawing; 
marketable products; area, population, climate; condition of the soil ; manners and 
customs of the inhabitants of the various parts of the world; languages used in 
business ; commercial companies and institutions ; emigration and immigration ; de- 
scription of ports and harbors; commercial centres; conveyances; telegraphic lines; 
imports and exjiorts ; hygiene in hot climates. 

Legislation and political economy (3 hours) : Fundamental principles of morality and 
political economy; lectures on the civil, commercial, and maritime laws ; maritime 
insurance ; international law ; commercial legislation in various countries ; history 
of commercial treaties. 

Shi2) outfit (2 hours). 

Conferences in French (2 hours) : In these conferences the pupils have to treat, each 
in his turn, in the presence of their professors and comrades, various questions of 
book-keeping, commercial geography, merchandise, legislation, and political economy. 

Fenmansliip (3 hours). 

English (5 hours) : Grammatical studies, commercial correspondence, conferences. 

Optional languages (3 hours) : Arabic, modern Greek, German, Italian, and Spanish. 

The school is a day school, receiving the pupils at 8 A. M. and dismissing them at 6 
p. M. Foreign pupils board in private houses in the city. 

Besides the weekly examinations, general examinations are held every three months 
in all the subjects taught in school. Accounts of the results of the examinations are 
sent to the parents or guardians. 

The examinations at the end of the year decide whether a pupil may go into a 
, higher course or not. 

DilDlomas of merit and certificates of studies are given to pupils leaving at the end 
of the third year, according to the notes obtained and the result of the final exam- 
ination. 

The council of administration does not lose sight of the former pupils of the school. 
A register of offers and demands of employment is opened in the director's office, and 
facilitates the placing of pupils who are without situations after they have left school. 

The school recognizes as former x3U];)ils only those who have obtained either a di- 
ploma or a certificate of studies. 

The school year begins on the 15th of October and ends on the 15th of August. 

The school fees are 400 francs for the first year, 600 francs for the second year, and 
800 francs for the third year. They are payable in advance. 

The greatest care is taken to foster a spirit of manliness and truthfulness and a 
high sense of duty among the pupils, and the discipline is administered only by an 
api)eal to these noble feelings. No pupil of bad habits is allowed to remain in the 
school. Punctuality of attendance is rigorously enforced. Notes of inquiry are sent 
when a pupil is absent, and no pupil can reenter his class without showing a written 
excuse from his parents or guardians. 

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